1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to protective non-woven sleeves which can be fitted about elongated items such as wires, wire harnesses, pipes, hoses tubing and the like to protect such elongated items from heat, cuts, chafing, abrasion and/or to provide shielding from vibration, noise and/or harshness.
2. Related Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,523,532 and 7,754,301 disclose a non-woven sleeve for use in covering elongated items, such as wires, wire harnesses, pipes, hoses tubing and the like. Such a non-woven sleeve is taught as being uniformly compressed to a desired density (which can vary depending upon the application) and also biased to a self-curling shape, so that when the sleeve is forced open along its slit edge and positioned about the elongated item, releasing the sleeve causes it to self-curl and wrap about the elongated item. Such a sleeve has the advantage of being self-wrapping and being made of non-woven material, but also has its limitations in that the densified self-curling attribute has the effect of making the product rather stiff and resistant to flexing, which can present a challenge when the sleeve is to be used to cover an elongated item that has curvature (e.g., a curved wire harness).